This film is neither good or bad enough to be great. The premise is promising (for that sub-set of people who love creaturefeatures) - a prehistoric alligator, produced Jurassic-Park style via DNA from a fossil, running around a Hawaiian resort (which may or may not be about to volcanically explode) eating the tourists. And the great thing about alligator or crocodile films (again, for the lovers of such movies) is that nowhere is safe - the critters can be in the water! On land! Hiding in bushes! Anywhere the cast goes, the crocogator can follow. This usually makes for some great "reptile persecuting and chasing frightened teens" scenes...in other movies.
Personally, I'd ignore all the reviews about bad acting, bad CGI, low budget, eastern European cast, plot holes the size of Bulgaria, continuity errors etc - those are part and parcel of this genre, and should be celebrated rather than snottily mocked by those who - against all evidence and knowledge of the genre - apparently expected a high-quality movie. If one mocks creature-features for all of the above, then they all get a 1/10 rating - which ignores the fact that some are far more enjoyable than others.
Unfortunately, although this movie features all of the above, it is not one of the good ones. Its main problem is that the writers have apparently mistaken premise for plot - although it (sort of) makes sense that the Supergator is there (because Kelly McGillis's company made it from a fossil), and that the volcanologists are there looking at the volcano, and that a variety of red-t-shirted and bikini-clad teens are there... that's not *plot*.
It simply isn't enough to have a supergator running around eating the minor cast. There are no hooks - no tragic backstory, no budding romance, no egg-stealing teens, no black-shirted leering villains to die in the final gruesome scenes (Kelly McGillis didn't even have the grace to adopt a Bulgarian accent!) and not even a clear-cut hero and heroine. As a result, you simply have a few cast members pottering around the island for one-line reasons ("Let's visit the waterfall!" "Let's look at the volcano!" "Let's pose in our bikinis!" "Let's declare a vendetta against the supergator even though I have no stated reason for so doing!" etc), getting chewed up and spat out. It is, quite frankly, boring.
There are a few nice touches - the typical homages to Jaws, some cheesy one-liners, a couple of spectacular deaths by Surprise Leaping Supergator - as well as the litany of amusing continuity errors, plot holes, superfluous bikinis, random lesbians, stereotypical (Quint-essential) old man with a vendetta etc. But none of those things are enough to make up for the lack of plot and character-development - hence we never get as far as caring what happens to any of them, and the suspense is virtually nil.
Overall, I'd watch Crocodile 2: Death Roll instead!
Personally, I'd ignore all the reviews about bad acting, bad CGI, low budget, eastern European cast, plot holes the size of Bulgaria, continuity errors etc - those are part and parcel of this genre, and should be celebrated rather than snottily mocked by those who - against all evidence and knowledge of the genre - apparently expected a high-quality movie. If one mocks creature-features for all of the above, then they all get a 1/10 rating - which ignores the fact that some are far more enjoyable than others.
Unfortunately, although this movie features all of the above, it is not one of the good ones. Its main problem is that the writers have apparently mistaken premise for plot - although it (sort of) makes sense that the Supergator is there (because Kelly McGillis's company made it from a fossil), and that the volcanologists are there looking at the volcano, and that a variety of red-t-shirted and bikini-clad teens are there... that's not *plot*.
It simply isn't enough to have a supergator running around eating the minor cast. There are no hooks - no tragic backstory, no budding romance, no egg-stealing teens, no black-shirted leering villains to die in the final gruesome scenes (Kelly McGillis didn't even have the grace to adopt a Bulgarian accent!) and not even a clear-cut hero and heroine. As a result, you simply have a few cast members pottering around the island for one-line reasons ("Let's visit the waterfall!" "Let's look at the volcano!" "Let's pose in our bikinis!" "Let's declare a vendetta against the supergator even though I have no stated reason for so doing!" etc), getting chewed up and spat out. It is, quite frankly, boring.
There are a few nice touches - the typical homages to Jaws, some cheesy one-liners, a couple of spectacular deaths by Surprise Leaping Supergator - as well as the litany of amusing continuity errors, plot holes, superfluous bikinis, random lesbians, stereotypical (Quint-essential) old man with a vendetta etc. But none of those things are enough to make up for the lack of plot and character-development - hence we never get as far as caring what happens to any of them, and the suspense is virtually nil.
Overall, I'd watch Crocodile 2: Death Roll instead!